Steps Point to Possible Swap of Spy Suspects With Russia

WASHINGTON — Just days after the F.B.I.’s sensational dismantling of a Russian spy ring, the American and Russian authorities on Wednesday were negotiating an exchange of some or all of the 10 accused agents for prisoners held in Russia, including a scientist convicted of spying for the United States.

Though American officials were close-mouthed, they confirmed the talks and there were signs that a swap might be completed quickly. The family of the imprisoned scientist, Igor V. Sutyagin, said he had been moved to Moscow and told that he would be flown to Vienna for release as early as Thursday. A lawyer for Anna Chapman, one of the suspected agents for Russia in New York, said he had spoken with American prosecutors and Russian officials about an equally speedy resolution.

“I feel our discussions will probably be resolved by tomorrow one way or another,” said the lawyer, Robert M. Baum. Another defense lawyer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was possible that many of the 10 defendants, or all of them, would plead guilty in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, when they are to appear for arraignment. (An 11th defendant fled after being released on bail in Cyprus.)

But no deal was announced, and it remained unclear whether the two sides had reached a final agreement and which Russian prisoners, in addition to Mr. Sutyagin, might be part of an exchange. A senior American diplomat, William J. Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, met on Wednesday with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergei I. Kislyak, but State Department officials would say only that the spy case was discussed.

A lawyer for Mr. Sutyagin, Anna Stavitskaya, said in an interview with a Moscow radio station that her client was shown a list of 11 Russian prisoners the United States wanted in a trade. He was told that if he or any of the prisoners on that list declined to admit their guilt and participate, the entire agreement would be voided, Ms. Stavitskaya said.

“It was either this way or they would create a life like hell for him,” she said. “He was thinking of his relatives, of his children — he has two daughters. And that is why he accepted the offer.”

An exchange would have some advantages for the Obama administration, avoiding costly trials that could be an irritant for months or years in American-Russian relations. But the White House might be reluctant to give up the accused agents, who were the targets of a decade-long F.B.I. investigation, without getting prisoners that the United States valued in return.

The potential exchange could also fuel accusations that the administration was being soft on Russia. Conservatives, including Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and a possible Republican presidential candidate, have urged the Senate to reject the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty agreed to by President Obama and President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia.

An exchange could prove awkward for both sides in other ways. Mr. Sutyagin’s innocence has been championed by human rights activists, for instance, and his family said he would prefer to remain in Russia. And John M. Rodriguez, a lawyer for one of the federal court defendants, Vicky Peláez, a veteran columnist for a Spanish-language newspaper in New York, said he believed that she would not want to move to Russia.

But a chance to escape prison appeared to be a powerful motivator in both countries. Mr. Sutyagin agreed to sign a confession, his family said, after being told it was necessary to be part of the exchange. And a lawyer for one of the defendants who had lived in Boston, known as Donald Heathfield, said his client’s greatest concern was for his two sons. The man’s wife, Tracey Lee Ann Foley, was also indicted as a member of the ring.

Mr. Heathfield’s lawyer, Peter B. Krupp, said the children had been “the No. 1 one priority and concern for my client and his wife since this whole ordeal started.”

He added, “If this case can be advanced or resolved more quickly and it helps them help their kids, they’re interested.”

Photo

Igor V. Sutyagin, a former arms control researcher, in a Moscow courtroom in 2004. He denies being guilty of espionage.Credit
Associated Press

The reports of a pending exchange, like the spy ring itself, seemed to have the accouterments of cold war espionage without the high stakes for national security. The accused Russian agents were described by American officials as using high-tech methods but acquiring no real secrets. A swap — in Vienna, a favorite rendezvous for 20th-century spies — would serve as a colorful final chapter for the espionage-novel plot.

No American accused of spying is known to be in Russian custody. But Mr. Sutyagin, who is serving a 14-year term, is one of a number of Russian scientists imprisoned after being accused of revealing secrets to the West. His family told reporters that the list of 11 prisoners he saw included Sergei Skripal, a colonel in Russian military intelligence sentenced in 2006 to 13 years for spying for Britain.

Jeffrey H. Smith, a former C.I.A. general counsel who negotiated a number of spy trades as a State Department lawyer in the 1970s and ’80s, said that during the cold war the United States almost never brokered swaps before people suspected of being Soviet spies had been convicted and spent time in prison.

“It would have been considered unseemly to make a trade right after they were captured,” he said. “It was believed that these were serious offenses and they needed to pay a price.”

Mr. Smith said that he did not know the details of the current case but that if Washington was indeed in the midst of a hasty prisoner exchange, “it’s fair to infer that these charges are not at the same level of seriousness.”

Mr. Sutyagin’s case resembled in one respect that of the 10 accused Russian agents. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan did not charge them with espionage because F.B.I. investigators apparently found no evidence that they had acquired classified information. And Mr. Sutyagin, an arms control researcher who worked for the Institute for the U.S. and Canadian Studies, a Moscow research organization, argued during his trial that he had no access to state secrets.

A physicist by training, Mr. Sutyagin was arrested in 1999 and accused of passing secrets about nuclear submarines to a British company that prosecutors claimed was a front for the C.I.A. He was convicted in 2004 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Human rights organizations at the time criticized Mr. Sutyagin’s prosecution, saying it suggested a Soviet-style wariness of contacts between Russian scientists and foreigners.

In an interview, Mr. Sutyagin’s mother, Svetlana E. Sutyagina, said that he had been transferred from a prison colony in northern Russia to Moscow, and that she had met with him on Wednesday morning.

Once in Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, she said, her son met with American officials in the presence of Russian security service officers. “The conversation was with our generals,” she said. “The Americans weren’t deciding anything.”

Ms. Sutyagina said the authorities had tried for 11 years to compel her son to confess to being an American spy. He signed the confession this week, she said, in part to help the suspects in the United States avoid prison time.

“He knows what it is to be in prison,” she said. “He doesn’t want to accept responsibility for letting those people go to prison.”

F.B.I. officials, who saw the long investigation as a triumph for the bureau, declined to comment on Wednesday. But John P. Slattery, a former top F.B.I. counterintelligence official, said investigators might be disappointed to see it end with an exchange.

“The individuals who ran the wires and did the surveillance may feel some frustration,” said Mr. Slattery, now with BAE Systems Intelligence and Security. “There would be some heartache in not seeing these guys do some jail time. But there are larger U.S. intelligence equities and policy considerations at stake, and they would understand that.”

Scott Shane reported from Washington, and Benjamin Weiser from New York. Mark Mazzetti contributed reporting from Washington, and Andrew E. Kramer from Moscow.

A version of this article appears in print on July 8, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. AND RUSSIA DISCUSS A TRADE TO END SPY CASE. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe